[Evangelist]

My Faith Journey from Islam into Christianity

I was born in Turkey, and was raised as a Muslim. Islam was my belief, culture and identity. I never had a doubt about Islam. I believed in the Koran and the last prophet with all my heart.

I wanted to be a Muslim, not because I was born in a Muslim family but because Islam is the truth. Therefore, I decided to learn about other religions. I was wondering why other people do not believe in Islam. I looked for people who believe in different religions.

I read the Koran, and I was stunned when I read that Christians will go to Hell directly because they make Jesus equal to God! (See, e.g., They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary. The Messiah (himself) said: O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Lo! whoso ascribeth partners unto Allah, for him Allah hath forbidden Paradise. His abode is the Fire. For evil-doers there will be no helpers [Qur'an, The Table (5):72, Pickthall's translation]). I could not understand that. Isn't it God's religion? Didn't God send Jesus? Why did God send Jesus who seems like a useless prophet who could not teach?

Jesus could not complete his mission as a prophet, people misunderstood him by calling him God, and at the end God had to save him from crucifixion. So why did God send Jesus?

I felt sorry about my Christian friends. I thought I should learn about Christianity so that I could help my Christian friends.

I bought a New Testament, and started reading. My real purpose was to find the mistakes. I did not start from the beginning. I began reading some chapters in the letters. As I was reading, I really liked the idea that when you marry your body belongs to your spouse, and his/her body belongs to you. I saw that the New Testament gives great importance to the women (It is not making them second class people). And I realized that I might not find mistakes but become very interested in Christianity. Therefore, I stopped reading that book.

One day my friend told me that he had a Christian friend, who talks about Jesus. I asked his phone number and called him. He invited me to a Christian meeting at the church. When I went there I saw that there were Christian Turks at that meeting. I could not believe that because how could a Turk become a Christian in a country in which they could easily learn about Islam? I thought that these Christian Turks were socially weak and could not exist themselves, therefore they were involved in such an activity.

However, I enjoyed going to these meetings because I could ask questions and discuss about religions. The second week I also invited my best friend to this meeting.

One day, this Christian friend invited me and my best friend to his house to watch a movie called “Jesus”. During the movie I expected that Jesus would say “A prophet will come after me and you shall believe in him”. Surprisingly he did not say that.

I realized that the Christianity I discovered was different from the one I thought that I knew. This time, I started reading the New Testament again. When I read the New Testament, I realized that I have to believe either Jesus or Mohammed. Jesus said, He is the only way. But Mohammed said he is the last prophet.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
Then I asked one of my friends if he could show me predictions about Jesus in the Old Testament. He gave me a list of verses, and I read those verses in the Old Testament. Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Psalm 2 and many others. These verses were about a coming Messiah, Jesus, and His crucifixion.

At this point I had clearly seen that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. However I was afraid of making an eternal mistake. And I found a way ….

People believe in different religions and all these religions can not be true. Intelligence is not enough to find God. However, I thought if I pray to God and give this responsibility to God then I should not worry about it. Because I believe that people can make mistakes but God does not. My prayer was similar to this:

God, I want to know you, I want to serve you, I am not seeking the pleasure of paradise, or some religious respect among others, but I only want to know you. I do not want to make a mistake. Please show yourself so that I may know that you are God.

After this prayer, in those weeks, I had a different experience in my life. When I opened the Bible the answer of my questions were right in front of my eyes. I asked for several signs from God to show me that I should follow Jesus. And he always showed those signs.

In 1994, I decided to follow Jesus. Since then, God always increased my faith in Him.

Do you really want to know God? Open your heart for the truth, pray and watch!

Yücel

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